Brain and Central Nervous System Cancers

In a new study, researchers found that adding bevacizumab (Avastin) to first-line (first treatments given) chemoradiation therapy did not lengthen the lives of patients with a common and aggressive type of brain tumor called glioblastoma. Chemoradiation therapy is a combination of chemotherapy, which is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells, and radiation therapy, which is the use of high energy x-rays or other particles to kill cancer cells.

A recent study by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) shows that chemotherapy after radiation therapy slowed the growth of anaplastic oligodendroglial tumors (a type of brain tumor). It also lengthened the lives of patients with this type of tumor, especially for those whose tumor was missing specific genetic material in chromosomes 1 and 19 (called 1p/19q co-deletions). Currently, most patients with this disease receive either chemotherapy or radiation therapy, but not both.

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